Can You Truly Multitask?

[Simon Bridge]

Sounds like your memory works by an intuitive form of the method of loci - you just don't need to do it consciously. And thanks - more citations is what this thread despirately needs.

 

[Evo]

Sounds like your memory works by an intuitive form of the method of loci - you just don't need to do it consciously. And thanks - more citations is what this thread despirately needs.

We also need to agree on what multitasking is. I gave a definition, and really most average humans are capable of doing at least two things at once quite well. I can only do three things well at once because I only have one head and two hands. I'm not talking about carrying out multiple difficult math equations in my head all at once. I'm talking about low level mental and physical tasks simultaneously. I think that's something that most people on this forum could do well. But we're a bit above average.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Well - that's where the citations come in handy.
When someone offers support for a position statement, we can go to the support to see in what context the position statement is supported. This works like a lit review and provides a richer portrait of the phenomena being discussed... as opposed to settling on a strict definition then seeing if it happens.

In this thread we've already seen three contexts where someone may feel they can support a statement like "multitasking is/isn't a myth" :)

 

[Evo]

Well - that's where the citations come in handy.
When someone offers support for a position statement, we can go to the support to see in what context the position statement is supported. This works like a lit review and provides a richer portrait of the phenomena being discussed... as opposed to settling on a strict definition then seeing if it happens.

In this thread we've already seen three contexts where someone may feel they can support a statement like "multitasking is/isn't a myth" :)

I'd be interested to hear the explanation of what they are basing "multitasking is a myth" on. Obviously multitasking is possible. Are they basing it on simultaneous high level mental tasks that utilize the same area of the brain? I read a study on that also, of course that's unrealistic. That's something completely different, and not the norm, IMO. That's comparing realistic to unrealistic tasks.

I just refuse to believe that my fellow humans are so incompetent that they can't do two or three simple tasks well at the same time. We're not talking rocket surgery here.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Well I provided a link ... ;) (post #27)
It becomes apparent that the ward "multitasking" is used as a shorthand for an ethos ... an expectation that getting people to perform lots of tasks at the same time is more efficient in general than having them focus on one task at a time. You can see the tests they did - basic sorting, low-level cognitive stuff.

Where the only material present was relevant to the tasks to be performed, the "strong multitaskers" outperformed the one-thing-at-a-time people... but, introduce superfluous material and the multitaskers performance went down a lot, even for tasks that did not involve multitasking. You can see how this can be right?

However - that is not the same as saying that humans cannot do two things at once: just that they are generally not as good at it as doing one thing at a time, especially when the task requires focus. It's not disputing that multitasking happens - but compares performance limits with management expectations in a particular regime.

 

[Evo]

Well I provided a link ... ;) (post #27)
It becomes apparent that the ward "multitasking" is used as a shorthand for an ethos ... an expectation that getting people to perform lots of tasks at the same time is more efficient in general than having them focus on one task at a time. You can see the tests they did - basic sorting, low-level cognitive stuff.

Where the only material present was relevant to the tasks to be performed, the "strong multitaskers" outperformed the one-thing-at-a-time people... but, introduce superfluous material and the multitaskers performance went down a lot, even for tasks that did not involve multitasking. You can see how this can be right?

However - that is not the same as saying that humans cannot do two things at once: just that they are generally not as good at it as doing one thing at a time, especially when the task requires focus. It's not disputing that multitasking happens - but compares performance limits with management expectations in a particular regime.

I agree with your points, but I think on a basic level, a person that is not easily distracted can do three tasks as well or better than someone that can't focus on a single task. For a test to be meaningful, first they would have to be tested for their ability to not be distracted. Then groups of people with the same capabilities would be tested. Obviously someone suffering from ADHD would not be a candidate for a multitasking test. People that aren't proficient or confident in their skills would not be candidates. People that are easily distracted or stressed by larger than normal workloads would not be candidates.

One of the tests we had was a sheet of math problems, while we were working on them a recorded voice would come on telling us "if you answered X to question 10, erase it and put the answer on number 16. A minute later - if your answer to question 10 was not X, place it on question 2. Then a few minutes later the voice would come on and tell you to erase and move something else, often dealing with multiple moves. Then later it would ask you to go back and correct your incorrect answer to question 10 and move it to 16, and re-answer question 2. The exercise was timed. The more mistakes you made, the lower your score was, and you also had to complete the test, some people couldn't take it and quit. It was very annoying.

 

[Simon Bridge]

All that is in the methodology part of the paper :)

 

[fluidistic]

I don't think I have the ability to concentrate on 2 tasks at once.
For example I can't read a simple sentence if someone is talking to me and I want to understand him/her. I could read the sentence like a "zombie" but as soon as I finish it, I don't know what I've just read. The opposite is true, I could read well the sentence but have no clue what the person just said.
As written earlier in this thread by someone else, to perform multitasking would require my brain to switch from 1 task to another in a "quick" fashion.

 

[Simon Bridge]

I've done and seen done something like that managing a fast-food restaurant:
There's a frontline with up to three tills, drive-through (with the order point and two windows), 3 monitors, and three channels on the comms ... so I'd frequently have to be doing something with my hands while tracking/filtering two streams of conversation and keeping an eye on the production line.

The real-time demands on my attention meant it was one of the more challenging management jobs I've had.

Crew needed to be able to track two channels of comms, and carry out instructions from a customer and their immediate workmates, even when those instructions change part through, and track stock in their part.

Oh I see a "https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=620838 " in "Fun,Photos, and Games".

 

[fluidistic]

Oh I see a "https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=620838 " in "Fun,Photos, and Games".

I don't think the game represent multitasking in the meaning of doing several things at once. For the reason that one has only 2 eyes, when you reach level 3 and up your brain must switch quickly between 1 task to another. So yes, you're performing 3 task that appear to be "at once" but the brain really is concentrating on only 1 (or 2?) task(s) at once and it switches to the other iddle task as soon as one can.
Unless there are some people who can focus their eyes in the middle of the screen and perform really n tasks at once. If you tell me there exist such people, then I would trust you and say "wow, they are lucky" :)

 

[Evo]

Recent study.

Motivated Multitasking: How the Brain Keeps Tabs on Two Tasks at Once

New research shows that rather than being totally devoted to one goal at a time, the human brain can distribute two goals to different hemispheres to keep them both in mind--if it perceives a worthy reward for doing so.

A new study, however, illustrates how the brain can simultaneously keep track of two separate goals, even while it is busy performing a task related to one of the aims, hinting that the mind might be better at multitasking than previously thought.

For the study, 32 right-handed subjects were asked to match letters while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Koechlin and his coauthor Sylvain Charron (of the same institution) found that the subjects' brains divided the two reward-based goals between the two sides of the region. The results were published online April 15 in Science.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=multitasking-two-tasks

More on the study.

Neuroscientist Scott Huettel of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, isn’t convinced of the two-task limit on human multitasking ability. “This shows there are conditions in which you can’t add a third task, but it depends on the type of task and whether it draws on other parts of the brain,” he says.

For example, people are remarkably good at eating while doing other things, he says, because the practiced motor skills involved in eating don’t overlap too heavily with those that interpret visual cues, control language, or run other complex processes. Nevertheless, he finds the dual-task division of labor “novel and exciting.” The study illustrates our striking lack of knowledge about how the brain’s hemispheres organize themselves, he says. “I wouldn’t have bet multitasking worked this way.

http://news.sciencemag.org/2010/04/multitasking-splits-brain

This is also what I believe, that more than two tasks are possible if one or more are on a lower physical level.

 

[Simon Bridge]

I don't think the game represent multitasking in the meaning of doing several things at once. For the reason that one has only 2 eyes, when you reach level 3 and up your brain must switch quickly between 1 task to another. So yes, you're performing 3 task that appear to be "at once" but the brain really is concentrating on only 1 (or 2?) task(s) at once and it switches to the other iddle task as soon as one can.
Unless there are some people who can focus their eyes in the middle of the screen and perform really n tasks at once. If you tell me there exist such people, then I would trust you and say "wow, they are lucky" :)

OR - you could say that the designer of the game is making a definition of multitasking to be the ability to quickly shift between tasks.

Hence the call for a definition earlier.
OP has yet to show up right?

 

[Pythagorean]

I think "task" is too arbitrarily defined. With some training, anyone can pat their head and rub their belly, but clearly cell phone use combined with driving compromises driving abilities. The wiki has some peer-reviewed literature on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_and_driving_safety#cite_note-Laberge-Nadeau2003-1

So I think the question of whether multitasking is possible or not hinges on the nature and scope of each task and the relationship between the tasks, as well as the experience and aptitude of the agent.

 

[Evo]

I think "task" is too arbitrarily defined. With some training, anyone can pat their head and rub their belly, but clearly cell phone use combined with driving compromises driving abilities. The wiki has some peer-reviewed literature on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_and_driving_safety#cite_note-Laberge-Nadeau2003-1

So I think the question of whether multitasking is possible or not hinges on the nature and scope of each task and the relationship between the tasks, as well as the experience and aptitude of the agent.

Yes. The problem with cell phone use is that the person gets caught up in the discussion and loses their focus on driving, it takes a back seat to their texting/talking. It's not just a task. And it requires physically looking away from the road. When you're moving in a vehicle weighing a couple of tons at what can be high speeds, with other things moving around you that require observing, it's insane. Even if you are just talking, you get wrapped up in thinking about the discussion. You more or less zone out.

 

[Best Pokemon]

On an episode of the "Numbers Game" on NatGeo, the host (who is a data scientist) said that studies show that multitasking isn't productive. They also demonstrated it by having two guys doing a woodwork project and send out a lot of important texts/emails. One guy multitasked and the other didn't. The one that didn't multitask finished both activities in the allotted time but the multitasker failed to finish either activity.

I would have to search for those studies.

 

[Evo]

On an episode of the "Numbers Game" on NatGeo, the host (who is a data scientist) said that studies show that multitasking isn't productive. They also demonstrated it by having two guys doing a woodwork project and send out a lot of important texts/emails. One guy multitasked and the other didn't. The one that didn't multitask finished both activities in the allotted time but the multitasker failed to finish either activity.

I would have to search for those studies.

Well, the study I posted shows that 2 tasks can be performed simultaneously in two hemispheres of the brain. As far as productivity goes, it would depend on the tasks, the person, how familiar they are with multi-tasking. Some people are too easily distracted and would not do well, others would do well. Obviously if you are on the phone 10 minutes with someone and type the conversation as you are speaking and your notes are finished when you hang up, both tasks took 10 minutes total. But if you talk for ten minutes and then only start to type after you've hung up, not only will you be less likely to recall the details of what to type, but then you've got the added time to write everything up. So, doing at least two tasks at once can be more productive.

 

[Filip Larsen]

(I've only read this thread very briefly, so apologies in advance if I'm repeating someone else)

In aviation psychology the ability to multitask has, not surprisingly, been studied a lot. According to [1], humans are able to perform selected visual, auditory and motor tasks (like low-level flying or basic communication over radio) while performing other selected cognitive tasks (like navigating via heads up displays) in a true multitasking fashion (i.e. not task switching). That is to say, a trained pilot is able fly a plane low over the ground based on the "optical flow" alone without having to think about it (similar, I guess, to the ability that most drivers have to drive their car on a well-known route in normal traffic without conscious effort). Many other sub-tasks that initially appear cognitive (like operating switches and knobs on the panels) can with training be pushed out as subconscioustasks that can be performed simultaneously with cognitive tasks. However, many of the tasks that a pilot (especially, a combat pilot) has to perform are cognitive tasks that cannot be performed simultaneously, but have to be switched between in a round robin fashion (like instrument scan combined with navigation). I understand that for most people it will require some serious training to get the skill of being able to make fast task switching between multiple tasks without getting your cognitive attention stuck on one of the task for too long, hinting that task switching is not a natural thing to do for the human mind.

A coworker taking instrument rating (IFR) for his private license once told me his instructor asked him what 4 plus 5 was during an instrument scan training flight, and he was simply not able to answer. He was cognitive so busy scanning just the instruments that there was no room for him to do schedule in a "simple" addition task in his task switching. I suspect that the extra cognitive load in such situations is not necessarily the primary task itself (like adding two number) but more that the whole package requires a relative large amount of cognitive effort in order to "comprehend and structure" the task initially. With training, some of the cognitive load of this task comprehension can probably be replaced with non-cognitive recognition allowing much better task switching. I guess this is also why distinct visual and auditory signals (in cockpits and man-machine interfaces) are often used as indicators for tasks that requires fast response.


[1] Principles and Practice of Aviation Psychology, Tsang and Vidulich, Erlbaum 2003.

 

[Viracocha]

Try simple stuff to train yourself to multitask. For instance, try listening to music while watching tv and being on your computer, eventually you'll get the hang of multitasking for more complex things.